BWI Technical Centre in Poland says it has seen 100% growth since 2008 as a result of increased global sales of passive damper technology.
Despite economic challenges, the opening of a new plant in Fangshan, Beijing in 2011, with a rated capacity of four million dampers and eight million piston rods as well as new business from BMW, PSA and Volvo, have contributed to steady growth in sales (double digit percentages for three of the four years).
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“The Krakow Technical Centre, as the global technical centre for core passive suspension technology, has supported this growth in all regions, regardless of where the application engineering work is performed or the dampers are manufactured,” said BWI global director sales/engineering, Jack Hackett.
The centre provides the design development and process development for all of BWI’s passive damper technologies. The nearby production plant is now BWI’s single largest passive damper production centre with more than 10m units a year.
Employment has increased since 2009, when BWI Group took over Delphi’s suspension businesses. When the technical centre opened through Delphi in 2000, it had 50-60 people and now has more than 370 employees.
The main reason has been the growth of BWI in China, which was followed by the need for TCK’s engineering support. The majority of that increase has taken place in the past four years despite the worldwide economic crisis.
In addition to the ongoing European Union activities of BWI, new projects have also been implemented for the Chinese market.
Krakow Technical Centre has supported this growth as the global technical centre for core passive suspension technology, regardless of where the application engineering work is performed or the dampers are manufactured.
A priority is placed on centralising the passive dampers technology engineering competencies, which were previously spread across Delphi’s EU facilities.
The addition of a model shop, material laboratory, test laboratory, valving and metrology laboratories, ride engineering group, development team and others, allows the technical centre to provide solutions to BWI’s worldwide customers, says the company.
